Thursday, August 20, 2009

Love/Hate

Some may call me wishy-washy, and maybe I am. But if I am, then at least I'm consistent about it. Ever since the prequel trilogy was released, I have gone back and forth as to whether or not I liked it. As each film came out, I went through stages of liking, then disliking, then liking, then hating, then settling on it was 'okay'. And then when all three were out and I had a chance to mull them over as a whole I went through the same game again.

When I first started this blog, I was in one of my kind of 'negative' periods—though I think a lot of that had to do with the fact I had just played 'The Force Unleashed' and was in the throes of anger and disgust at that piece of...software. Indeed, looking back on my initial posts, I was lashing out on just about everything from Novels to Cartoons. Thankfully, my rage against unleashed subsided and I saw that I was becoming one of 'those people'. You know, the kind who instantly classify anything new as crap. In my review of the Clone Wars cartoon I was finally able to curtail my anger and take a step back. And what I saw wasn't without merit.

I am a deeply nostalgic person. Anyone who knows me knows that. And as I've said many times before, it is difficult for ANYTHING to live up to something you grew up with—something that formed some of the basis of your childhood. And so I really do have to cut the prequels some slack. I still don't feel that they measure up to the original trilogy, and I still have some major problems with them (midicholorians), but overall? I enjoyed them. And overall I felt that they got better as things went on. I would even put Revenge of the Sith on par with Return of the Jedi. Both had some really great moments and some really silly moments.

I still maintain, however, that a lot of the Expanded Universe stuff just isn't that great. Namely, most of the novel series. But again, looking back on it I have to say some of that is just my personal preference. For instance, the Rogue Squadron novels weren't badly written, they just weren't anything I particularly cared to read about.

So what am I saying? I don't know. Just that while I do get grouchy sometimes, I am really NOT one of those 'hate anything Star Wars done after 1983' people. I would just enjoy it a lot more if were better than what it is. Look no further than the KotOR series if you want evidence of that. It was Star Wars AND original AND incredibly well done. Love every bit of it. I just hold Star Wars projects to a very high level—and thus far, most things have fallen well short of that level.

So here you have it, me at the 'accepting' stage of my wishy-washyness. Give me a few more months and I'm sure I'll be tearing the throats out of Gungans with my bare teeth.